Filipe Neto This film, basically and to approach in a simple way, revolves around a man and a woman who, while remaining anonymous, maintain sexual encounters that end up developing dramatically to the point of rupture. He is a widower and suffers with it, she is engaged but she have doubts that become more intense as their involvement increases. He seems to love her and despise her at the same time. She submits herself, accepts to be treated as a desired object, but this becomes more and more insufficient. That anthological scene of anal rape can be the most shocking and disgusting moment of the film. Subjects such as the middle age crisis, widowhood, sexual taboos, remorse, psychological traumas, betrayal, abuse over another, are all approached more or less intensely.The two main actors, Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, achieved stardom and have made here (mainly she) one of their most acclaimed cinematographic works. However, they are not particularly grateful to Bernardo Bertolucci, as they were also strongly stigmatized by the intense controversy surrounding the film. Personally, I understand the feelings of the actors, but I am the first to consider that it was an act of courage, folly and enormous talent to accept such roles.The cinematography is beautiful, fits perfectly into the mood of the film, which rotates between the seductive, the forbidden and the menacing. Eroticism and psychological violence unite their hands in this film, provocative, disturbing and horrendous in equal parts. Sex was not only an intimate act, but an act of mastery of one individual over another, a psychological refuge and a hope for something more, that never comes.For me, this movie is paradoxical. It was beautifully filmed and done, but it tackles themes and issues that are ugly in my opinion. Bernardo Bertolucci is one of the directors I least appreciate. Not because he's bad, but because I have always found him cruel and sick. Moreover, a good part of Italian cinema has this problem: it is cruel, it is ugly, it likes to talk and to show ugly things that repugn us. This movie is a movie I do not like, but it is powerful, it's impossible to be indifferent to it.

rdolan9007 This is a seventies film that is unsure of what it is meant to be and what it becomes as a result is probably just soft pornography(with one very unpleasant exception), mixed in with a little bit of satire, some meandering reflections on childhood, and having a muted incidental dark edge to it.The combination of sex in relationship to death however oblique was probably made controversial more by the amount of nudity on show (by the woman of course). Yet the downbeat cinematography, the sparse locations, the lack of empathetic characters make this a bleak and uninvolving film. No amount of sex or nudity makes this film interesting, despite trying its best to do so.It really is a disappointment, not a terrible film, and not a film without odd moments of humour either. The ballroom scene near the end where the films title is directly referenced is actually funny, particularly the outraged judges who are appalled by the frivolous dancing of Brando and his young partner Maria Schneider.The film does try to create a darkness which doesn't quite work. Brando's unfaithful wife is shown to have killed herself and he embarks on a very cold detached affair with Maria Schneider's character. It is exploring a very dysfunctional relationship, but because you don't really care about the characters, the darkness in the film appears as an after thought.It is a challenging role for Brando but perhaps because he can be quite a complicated and aloof actor anyway, there is simply not enough warmth in this role from him to make you care about the character.Maria Schneider unfortunately does not get much more of a role then to be completely naked. There is a side story showing her making a true life documentary with her director boyfriend. It is meant as parody, but you still don't care about her character and it further distracts from the darkness of the main plot-line.There are genuinely controversial elements today a modern audience should find very uncomfortable. One of the sex scenes which might have been seen by some as acceptable in the seventies, would almost certainly be seen as non-consensual sex and therefore rape in today's courts.Therefore this film is a extremely disappointing on a number of levels. What might have been a very interesting and truly great film is seen to condone rape because it does not challenge the man over his actions, or explore the affects on her of that rape. A far less serious disappointment is that the acting does not engage you. It's a film that is a creaky, often pretentious piece, and probably (with one nasty exception) not much more than soft pornography.

Irishchatter I honestly didn't understand why they didn't supply English subtitles for people who didn't understand French. The only reason I got to watch this movie was because, Marlon Brando was on this and to be honest with ya, I hadn't a clue what he was saying either. The only times I understood what the characters were saying, is when they spoke a bit of English. After that, you were screwed.I even didn't even like the ending either, just because Brando is always in gangster movies, doesn't mean his movies should be all involved with gangster! I mean, it would've been better if he and the young girl ran from Paris and lived somewhere else. Otherwise, I would be given this a 9/10 but instead with a few major disappointing bits, I give this a 5/10...

thederf This is over 2 hours of incoherence, sophomoric dialog, awful acting, and male self-congratulatory acts of rape and sodomy as expressions of love and meaning. Over-rated Brando is as fatuous here as he is fat later on. He has to constantly look off camera to spout the most inane bloated pig crap in cinema. Rosa was completely justified in suicide from a bore (boar!) like Brando. Her mother could not have prayed enough to save her daughter. Marie Schneider of little talent and no underwear should have listened to the black landlady . . . "you're too young. . ." The audience is too old for this drivel. If only she had shot him 2 hours earlier we could have caught the winner of the last tango.